The true story behind one of the world's most notorious paedophile rings.

Police are finally investigating child abuse, murder and other hideous acts that allegedly took place within the shadow of the nation’s Parliament.

Warning: This post deals with child sex abuse allegations that may be triggering for some readers.

A special investigation by 60 Minutes has delved into some disturbing allegations of abuse by a UK-based ‘VIP paedophile ring‘, which is said to have included policemen, spies and MPs. Those men are known collectively as the Westminster paedophile network — and the details of their alleged crimes are nothing short of sickening.

Many of the children, some of them just eight years old, were too young to articulate what had been done to them. Even if the little girls and boys had spoken out, they likely would have been silenced by the powerful figures implicated in their abuse.

In each case, the trauma these innocent kids endured at the hands of a high-profile group of men cannot be understated.

The ring is now the subject of a British parliamentary inquiry into high-profile paedophile networks — an inquiry formed in the aftermath of the explosive Jimmy Savile child sex abuse revelations. British police are investigating claims the Westminster ring in particular may have killed several children, and abused dozens or even hundreds of others from the 1970s onwards.

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On last night’s episode of 60 Minutes, abuse survivor Richard Kerr described how he was raped “maybe twice, three times a week” from the age of nine by members of the ring. The sex abuse started within a week of his moving to the notorious Kincora Boys Home, which was run by three men now convicted of abusing 11 boys.

Along with other boys living at the Northern Ireland home, Kerr was picked to be trafficked to London. There, he was abused at the Dolphin Square complex — an apartment block near Parliament that was home to more than 70 MPs and at least 10 Lords at one time.

“I felt afraid to say no,” Kerr said of the repeated abuse he endured.

“It happened to others [too],” he added. “Why would it go on for so long? Why didn’t somebody just step in and say, ‘we need to investigate this’?”

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Two of the other boys trafficked to London with him have since taken their own lives, Kerr told Channel 4 News.

Esther Baker is another brave survivor of abuse. She told 60 Minutes on last night’s program how, for at least five years from the age of six, she was abused by a group of men that included two well-known politicians.

“There were a big group of girls and a group of men,” Ms Baker said of the traumatic events she endured. “And the men would basically single out the girls, pick who they wanted, and we would be abused.”

The visibly emotional woman, 32, added: “There would be about seven or eight men there each time. On occasion, there were police.”

The 60 Minutes team also spoke to Kevin Allen, 53, who believes his brother Martin Allen was murdered by the paedophile ring more than three decades ago.

Martin, who lived with his family on the grounds of the Australian High Commission in London, disappeared in 1979 at age 15. The commission where the family lived was often visited by VIPs including accused child rapist Sir Peter Morrison, Daily Star news reports.

In the weeks following Martin’s disappearance, a witness reported seeing Martin being led onto the train by a tall blonde man in his 30s. The man allegedly held Martin by the scruff of his neck and led him off the train, where he told the boy, “Don’t try to run”.

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That man was never identified, but Martin’s grisly fate might be explained by the evidence of a key witness who says that three boys were killed by the Westminster paedophile ring. That witness claimed one of those boys was strangled to death by a Conservative MP, that another child was deliberately run over by a member of the paedophile ring, and that yet another was killed in front of a government official, according to Fairfax Media,

Kevin Allen told 60 Minutes that when he told police at age 17 of his suspicion that Martin was taken by somebody “high-up,” a senior policeman told him: “If you keep saying things like that, someone’s going to get hurt.”

Martin Allen’s body was never found — nor has anyone ever discovered the bodies of the other boys allegedly killed by the Westminster ring.

The Guardian reports that detectives investigating the Westminster paedophile ring do not have the full names of the other boys allegedly killed.

Investigations continue.

You can watch the 60 Minutes episode on the Channel Nine website here.

Bravehearts helps victims of child sex abuse. You can find more information about them here or call them on 1800 272 831.

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The teenage pop stars who watched a rape.